


Multiply

by Kaicielia



Series: Cheynne's Legacy [4]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Birth, F/M, Love, Loyalty, Married Couple, Pregnancy, cross-faction friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 07:36:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3887737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaicielia/pseuds/Kaicielia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pregnancy is hard on Cheynne, and her crew struggles to make her comfortable. Is a disputed planet the best place to stay?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Multiply

**Author's Note:**

> I tend to write useless strings of day-to-day life, and occasionally a stretch makes a great short story.

The months had worn Cheynne out. It seemed within days of learning she was with child her body turned on her. Just the thought of eating caused her stomach to clench, she felt pain in joints she didn’t know she had and despite a persistent exhaustion she found little sleep.

Ashara insisted Cheynne see a doctor or midwife, someone experienced with handling pregnancy, but she resisted. She was not ill or injured and each of the symptoms she was experiencing was considered normal, she insisted, so she was in no need of medical care. At one point Ashara ambushed her, inviting a doctor onto the ship while Cheynne was gone to see her when she returned. The doctor survived the encounter, just barely, and Ashara never tried the stunt again.

They had spent each of the previous four weeks on a different planet, Cheynne desperately trying to find a place with some level of comfort only to have disappointment drive her on again. Hoth was too cold, Tatooine too hot, Nar Shaddaa too busy…. She suffered through each for as long as she could, their departures following incidents where her nerves had been pulled too tightly and she snapped. She still had months left when they landed on Alderaan and the crew had gotten jumpier with each outburst.

As they exited the spaceport and walked into the full Alderaanian sun, Cheynne tilted her face up and took a deep breath. There was serenity in the sounds of flowing water and singing birds and comfort in the heat from the sun that warmed her body as she felt it spread to her painful joints. 

They were staying at a house on the Thul estate, an annoying bunch to say the least but they controlled a large area and feared the Empire enough to allow Cheynne the freedom she demanded. They were given rooms and full run of the common areas of the house, as well as servants ready to cater to their every whim. The servants were grateful that, of everything she could have, Cheynne wanted solitude the most.

Andronikos raced their speeder out onto one of the endless meadows on the planet, making their way to a copse of trees on a lake where the sun hit just before it set. The place had become a lifesaver for Cheynne; the heat soaked into her bones just before night. While it didn’t quiet the voices or tame the nightmares, it made the pain bearable and she was able to sleep for more hours at a stretch than she’d managed without the ritual. Jumping on anything that would tamp the fires of her anger, Andronikos had made sure to get her there each day.

As they followed along the river that fed the lake Cheynne closed her eyes and concentrated on the feel of the wind through her hair, ignoring the nausea that travel invariably induced. When they arrived at their spot Andronikos laid out a blanket and picnic meal, as he had every day for weeks, and they sat together. Cheynne ate very little, accepting only the tiny morsels Andronikos fed to her himself, and concentrated on the comfort afforded by their surroundings. Andronikos told stories of his life as a Republic soldier and pirate and Cheynne spoke of the flesh markets and how she had gone from slave to Sith.

As the sun fell below the canopy of the trees and began warming their spot they laid down together, his arm wrapped around her from behind, and their meaningless conversation turned to silence. Cheynne closed her eyes as the heat penetrated her body. Within half an hour she drifted off, unable to remain awake any longer.

By the time Cheynne woke the air had turned uncomfortably cool. The sun had fallen well below the horizon and the moisture in the air chilled her. Realizing she was awake, Andronikos pulled her closer, hoping to trap enough heat to keep her still a while longer. The sun had fallen, though, and taken every bit of comfort with it. Lying on the cold, wet ground was the last place she wanted to be. She turned to face him and pulled his arm from around her. “Time to go.”

He rolled to his back and sighed loudly, laying still for a moment before sitting up. “All right, let’s go.” There was annoyance in his voice, but Cheynne knew that falling into a bed would correct his mood quickly and that was exactly where she intended to go.

They packed up quietly and before long were again following the river, this time toward the house they were staying in. As they came to the bridge where the main road crossed the river, Cheynne noted a blinking light that had not been there on their previous trips. She pointed it out to Andronikos as they neared the bridge and he slowed slightly, trying to identify it, when there was an explosion and they were flying through the air with a ton of burning debris falling around them.

 

Some while later Cheynne heard calm voices speaking to each other. “Just keep her down,” one unfamiliar voice said. “Stars, just keep her out.”

“I would have called for a medical team sooner; we didn’t expect anyone to be out here.”

As sleep escaped so too did the comfort it brought. She trusted the voices as they continued and tried to pull the shroud back to escape the pain, but another voice caught her attention and held it. “No!” Someone yelled from a short distance away, his troubled voice out of place. “Please, before she wakes up.”

“You are wanted for crimes of treason and piracy,” another angry voice over those trying to keep her calm.

“Get out of my way and let me see to my wife.” There was a scuffle and the sound of something heavy hitting the floor.

“Andronikos,” Cheynne said softly, matching a name with the voice. The calm conversation around her ceased abruptly.

“Not to mention a list of lesser crimes fit to….” The shouted sentence got louder as the speaker came close, answered by a chorus of “Shhh!”

Cheynne turned toward the commotion and the slight movement brought tearing fire to her abdomen. Her eyes shot open and she cried out at the unexpected pain. Everything around her was darkness beyond an immediate circle of Republic soldiers leering down on her, several with weapons drawn.

She struck out, engulfing the immediate area in a Force Storm. Cries of pain and astonishment surrounded her. She heard several shots fired, quickly replaced by barked orders. She tried to rise again, forcing herself up through the pain, only to be pushed back down by one of the soldiers. She focused her rage on him, ready to loose an electrified bolt, when he was shoved to the side and Andronikos knelt beside her, grasping her hand. 

“Calm, Sith,” he said, his voice low.

“Something’s wrong,” Cheynne told him. “We have to get out.”

“Shhh….” He brushed hair from her face. “They’re helping.”

“No, it hurts.” She tried again to rise and managed to prop herself up on an elbow. “We have to go.”

“Andronikos,” someone called from the entrance. He held up a hand and the movement revealed the speaker to be a Jedi. Cheynne’s heartbeat quickened and she looked around frantically for an escape, preparing another Force attack as she did.

“No. Calm.” Andronikos grabbed her chin and forced her to look into his eyes. “Trust me, they’re here to help.” The evenness of his voice forced Cheynne to consider his words. She shook her head, trying to make sense of what was happening around her, and slowed her breathing.

A dull pain started in her back, building and migrating to her abdomen as it peaked and passed. She fell back and grasped her belly with her free hand. “No,” She cried, just then realizing the predicament she was in. “It’s too early.”

The Jedi behind Andronikos walked closer. Cheynne squeezed the hand that still held hers, panic welling up, but Andronikos’ eyes and face remained calm. She stared at him, knowing she had few options and trusting his judgment.

The Jedi knelt and placed a hand over theirs. Cheynne kept her eyes locked with Andronikos’. “We need you to sleep,” the Jedi told her. “I can help you.”

“It’s OK, I’ll be right here.” Andronikos continued to stare, holding her attention. She flinched when she felt a hand rest on her head but made no effort to remove it. She felt an intrusion into her mind and her vision blurred, darkness slowly closing over her.

 

By the time Cheynne again woke the sun shown brightly and the tent she was in had become uncomfortably warm. She looked at the emptiness around her and considered her situation. She was in a Republic camp, obviously, of what size she didn’t know. There were Jedi, or at least a Jedi, defending the place and…. Her hands went to her belly, the loss suddenly apparent. Her child had been taken and she hoped Andronikos had been right to trust the Jedi. Slowly, painfully, she rose to sit on the cot.

The flap to the tent was pulled aside and the Jedi entered. Cheynne stared at him, preparing to defend herself if the need arose.

“The babies are fine, they are being looked over now.” He must have sensed her shock at his words because he quickly added, “Didn’t know you carried twins? Well didn’t your doctor… but wait, what use has a Sith for a doctor?”

The Jedi stood and stared at her. She sat silently and waited; waited for her babies to be brought to her, waited for Andronikos to come to her. After several minutes she finally spoke.

“I’m sure you’re ready to be rid of me, and I’m ready to be out of here. What’s holding this up?”

“You are an anomaly, Sith,” the Jedi said, pacing in front of her. “Generally Sith are all about themselves, acquiring power at the sacrifice of all else. In you I sense connections, ties I’ve never sensed in a Sith before.”

“I wouldn’t expect a Jedi to know love.”

He smiled a bit. “I’ve known love, Sith, but it is not a Jedi’s place. It leads to the dark side. It gives one….”

“Something to fight for.” Cheynne finished for him. 

“I was going to say something to fear losing, but I guess either works.”

They stared at each other in silence for some time before Cheynne added, “I am done being lectured. Please tell Andronikos I am ready to leave.”

“Do you think the Republic will let him go?” the Jedi asked.

Her panic ticked up a notch. “It would be in their best interest,” she answered, searching the small tent for any means of escape.

“Or you will rescue him again, as you did on Coruscant?”

Shocked, Cheynne looked at the Jedi again and realized he was the same one that had chased them through that city on their one and only visit. Suddenly his line of questioning didn’t seem so random.

“You say you have known love yet here you stand, alone.” She pointed out to him.

“I told you, love is not for a Jedi. I had to….”

“You had to do nothing. You chose your order over love and now you have what you wanted.”

He stared at her for some time, as if acknowledging the choice he had made was painful for him. “It is difficult,” he finally explained, “leaving so much behind. But that’s what life is, isn’t it, a series of choices.”

Andronikos entered then, carrying one bundle while a soldier followed carrying another. The relaxed smile on his face put Cheynne at ease, chasing away her alarm. He glanced at the Jedi, giving him a questioning look, before sitting on the cot.

The baby in his arms lay still, fast asleep. Cheynne accepted the other as it was handed to her, unsure at first whether she was capable of caring for such a delicate package. The feeling passed quickly, however, as she got lost in the pair of wide blue eyes.

She looked up to the Jedi, wondering what he thought of this show, but he had gone.

“We have to go,” Cheynne told Andronikos when they were alone. “There’s no way they’re letting us leave without a fight.”

“I know,” he answered, not taking his eyes from the bundle he held. “I can get us a speeder, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to get away. This camp is set in the middle of a plain, wide open all around.”

“How long do you think we have?”

“Not long. Just heard the soldier on com confirm our location to whatever convoy is heading this way.”

Cheynne stood. She felt pain and her muscles protested at being used so soon after birth, but she could move. She went to the flap of the tent and looked out.

There were two guards just outside and five more speaking together a short way off. She could hear additional movement on both sides; there were likely another 20 or more soldiers milling about.

“How many Jedi are here?” She asked, turning back to face Andronikos.

“Just the one.” He answered. “We’re lucky he was with the troops. They were ready to execute you without a second thought, but he intervened.”

“He’s questioning his path,” Cheynne explained. “Do you recognize him?”

Andronikos nodded.

“He’s considering what he gave up to join the Order and the picture we paint isn’t what he expected.”

A soldier walked in carrying a tray with food and water on it. When he saw Cheynne standing he froze, unsure what to do.

“You have to sit, please,” he said. “I… The doctor needs to check on you one more time, make sure you’re OK before you go.”

She smiled sweetly at him, putting him off his guard. “Thank you, I’m so thirsty,” she said, taking a water from the tray as she sat back on the cot next to Andronikos. “When will the doctor be here?”

He sighed heavily and set the tray down. “It won’t be long now,” he told them before he rushed out.

“They’re getting ready,” Andronikos said. “And now they know we are, too.”

They ate quickly, just enough to suppress the hunger pangs they were beginning to feel, and discussed their plan. If they travelled directly out of the tent and kept going, Andronikos told Cheynne, they may be able to make it over the next hill before the mass of troops catches on.

He was going to make one more run around the camp, get a last look at how many soldiers there were and what the path they planned on taking looked like, but he didn’t get the chance. A rumble of heavy machinery began in the distance and grew louder. They stood together, realizing that the time had come to act or accept defeat and neither was inclined to the latter.

They readied themselves, steadying breath and calming nerves in the hopes that they could make it out alive – all four of them. When the noise reached a volume that would hide the sounds of battle from the rest of the camp they acted, bolting out of the tent prepared to fight.

What they saw surprised them, however. The guards who had been standing at the tent lay on the ground, smiling faces indicating they slept peacefully, as were the group that had been standing further off. The Jedi stood further out still, waving his hands to pacify a soldier that was preventing him from taking one of the vehicles he was guarding. It seemed all the other soldiers were watching the convoy approach, oblivious to what was occurring.

They rushed out of the tent, heading to the vehicle the Jedi had liberated. As they approached the Jedi mounted the vehicle and motioned for them to ride as passengers.

“You will take the vehicle,” the soldier that continued to stand there said, eyes glazed. “You will bring it back soon.”

“Off,” Cheynne ordered the Jedi, standing by and waiting for him to obey. “We go alone.”

He crossed his arms and sat back, refusing to comply. They stared at each other for a short time. The noise of the approaching convoy woke the babies and they began to cry in their discomfort.

Andronikos looked to the camp behind them. “Just go,” he told Cheynne, pushing her toward the vehicle. “We don’t have time for this.”

She crawled into the bed of the vehicle, not entirely trusting the Jedi but believing it would be easier to overpower him down the road than the entire camp full of soldiers. As they drove off she watched a cloud of dust engulf the camp and wondered just how much firepower was considered appropriate in securing a Sith and a pirate. They were over the hill before anyone realized they were gone.

“There may be darkness in you after all,” Cheynne said to the Jedi as they flew away.

“There is nothing dark about keeping a family intact,” he responded. After a moment of silence he continued, “Some on the Jedi Counsel believe leaving the children with you is inadvisable. They both have a strong connection to the Force and it was argued that they should be raised as allies rather than enemies.”

“You told the Jedi Counsel of my children?” Cheynne asked in a dangerous voice.

“What, they were just going to take them?” Andronikos added.

The Jedi shrugged his shoulders. “It was discussed. The Council ultimately decided against it, but I was disturbed that the subject was even broached.”

“Won’t they know that you helped us?” Cheynne pointed out.

“There’s a reason they keep denying my requests to sit on the council,” the Jedi said, hint of a laugh in his voice. “They tell me I act too rashly.”

“A man who is sure of his actions doesn’t need to wait for the approval of others.” Andronikos told him, conveying his respect and gratitude with the remark.

They rode in silence for many minutes, soon coming up on the house where they had been staying. The Jedi cut the engine well before they reached it and turned to the couple.

“So here you are, back in friendly hands.”

Cheynne looked around for any sign of ambush or trap, still not entirely trusting that they were safe. They climbed out of the vehicle and stood before the Jedi.

The Jedi looked down at the babies and a sad smile crossed his face. “It will distress me if I ever find myself in battle with them,” he said. “I hope the day never comes.”

Andronikos reached out to him, clasping hands with the Jedi as if they were old friends. The Jedi then turned to Cheynne, reaching out to take her hand.

She ignored his gesture and stared into his eyes, searching for any hint of treachery and finding none. “The fact I was born a slave defined my life; I made sure my children were born free so that they could define their own.” She looked down to the child in her arms, then back to the Jedi. “They won’t learn to hate you from me.”

Her statement seemed to shake the Jedi. He withdrew his hand, smiled and nodded before starting the vehicle up again and riding off.

 

They ran into Ashara and Xalek on their way back to the house. They had been searching for the couple, sure that they had been captured by the Republic, and were relieved to see them and shocked to see the babies. Despite Cheynne’s insistence that it was not needed, Ashara arranged for a midwife to visit, to assure that everyone was healthy and teach Cheynne the basics of caring for infants.

Ashara stood close by, studying everything the midwife explained as if she was the one who had just given birth. She offered to hold one so that Cheynne could clean herself up and was the first to respond when Andronikos asked for assistance changing diapers. Cheynne found herself smiling at the joyful look that came over Ashara’s face whenever she held one of infants.

Khem stood stoically by, as he always did, ready for a command. Cheynne noted that he no longer stood directly behind her but off to one side, whichever side the babies were on, knowing that his priorities had shifted along with her own. Talos and Xalek looked on indifferently as they were tended to, but even they showed a hint of a smile the first time they saw the babies. 

It seemed every woman in the house found it necessary to get a look. Cheynne was showered with gifts; clothing and trinkets and toys that held no interest to her and she was sure held no interest to the babies. She was given unsolicited advice about everything from feeding and caring for the infants to sexual relations following the birth and the most effective forms of birth control.

The attention began to wear on her and she eventually locked herself in the room she shared with Andronikos, denying entry to all but him. There were some complaints and Ashara took to handling the gifts, collecting them and setting them aside until such time Cheynne was willing to go through them. After night fell and the parade of admirers was long gone and she and Andronikos lay together on the bed, watching the babies sleep, she finally felt at peace.

“A boy and girl, healthy and intact,” Andronikos said. “Can’t get much more perfect than that.”

“Good,” Cheynne answered, a laugh in her voice, “Because you’re never getting me to go through that again.”

He pulled her closer, burying his face in her hair and giving a low growl. “You can say that again. I’m not sure I would survive it.”

After a moment more of silence, before the veil of sleep shrouded her mind, Cheynne smiled at the babies. “Welcome to life, Nikkolas and Reynne,” she said, lightly touching their faces in turn. “I hope it meets your every expectation.”


End file.
